Russian National Illegally Manufactured Weapons in Spain, Arrested

The National Police of Spain dismantled a criminal network in Girona involved in manufacturing and distributing firearms to drug-trafficking groups, led by a 63-year-old former Russian serviceman.

According to the investigation, he handled the technical aspects of the scheme and worked in a clandestine workshop in Figueres, Girona province.

During the operation, police found various weapons at different stages of conversion, including submachine guns and rifles modified to fire live ammunition, as well as barrels, bolts, and frames. Starting and traumatic pistols were also being converted into functional firearms there.

In total, law enforcement officers seized 644 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and numerous suppressors. Their black-market value is estimated at around €5 million.

The weapons were distributed through courier companies using forged or fictitious personal details to avoid detection.

According to the Spanish publication Europa Press, the investigation began in early 2026 after authorities identified a series of suspicious postal shipments from the Valencian Community to other regions of Spain. Fictitious or stolen personal details were used to send the packages.

In June, law enforcement intercepted one of the packages and found a gun, a submachine gun, a suppressor, and a high-capacity drum magazine inside. Subsequent arrests established that the network supplied weapons to other criminal groups involved in drug trafficking and kidnappings.

Six people were arrested in Girona, Valencia, Badajoz, and Barcelona, including the group’s leader, who remains in custody.

A key development came on August 25, when another package containing a submachine gun with its serial number removed was intercepted in Girona. Surveillance of the suspects linked the shipment to a warehouse in Figueres, after which law enforcement obtained authorization to conduct searches.

The investigation is ongoing at both the national and international levels to trace the seized weapons, with further arrests not ruled out.

On August 22, German intelligence services discovered a secret weapons cache with two pistols on the border between Berlin and the state of Brandenburg. A Ukrainian citizen set it up on behalf of Russian intelligence services.